Of course, a Yankees fan shouldn’t be annoyed by a loss to a good team after winning 11 in a row but I’m sure I wasn’t the only one miffed at the conclusion of last night’s game. Despite not doing much against a pitcher who they could have done much against, and despite some horrific umpiring from Home Plate umpire Marty Foster*, the Yanks still had a chance to win with the bases loaded in the ninth. Alas, the baseball Gods weren’t having it, so we just have to deal with the frustrating loss.
(*Ump Scorecards hasn’t updated last night’s games yet – we’ll circle back on Marty soon.)
On a somewhat related note, one of the reasons the Yankees still had a chance is because Vladimir Guerrero Jr. – despite looking like the reincarnation of Dick Allen at the plate – is a horrendous first baseman. On pretty much every play in which he receives a throw, Vlad either puts his foot on the wrong spot on the bag or puts the wrong foot on the bag (which cost him Tuesday Night when DJ was safe on a play he shouldn’t have been) or sometimes doesn’t bother keeping his foot on the bag at all (which he did twice this series). Heck, on the final frustrating play of last night’s game he was actually sitting down to receive the throw.
OK, moving on, not our problem.
From the glass half full department, the Yankees are 18-7 and in first place in the AL East, three games ahead of both Toronto and Tampa Bay in the loss column, and eight up on Boston. The Yankees, of course, have today off but the other three teams are all in action later. (Let’s go Angels, Guardians, and Mariners!)
The Yanks got another great pitching performance last night holding a very good hitting team to two runs. Once again, Nestor Cortes showed that even when he’s bad, he’s not bad, as he posted a game score of 45 while Michael King and Clay Holmes combined to throw four scoreless innings without allowing a baserunner.
Most of the bats were quiet last night but we saw more good signs from Joey Gallo. Gallo blasted a ball 417’ to left-center for a home run then drew a walk from a good at-bat in the ninth in which there were two “good takes”. Gallo’s performance this season is going to go a long way toward the Yankees’ chances in 2022 so it’s a good sign to see good at-bats from him.
On April 19th I wrote that the stretch from that day through May 8th would go a LONG way toward determining where the Yankees will be in the standings in September. They wrap that stretch up this weekend against Texas, who we’ll talk more about tomorrow, but they’re another team the Yankees should manhandle. (That said, the weather doesn’t look too good for Friday and Saturday so stay tuned…) After that the Yankees are off on Monday the 9th, then play 20 straight days before an off day on Memorial Day (if you can make that make sense, let me know).
Enjoy the peaceful day off. I’ll be back later with an anecdote, and tomorrow with a Texas preview.
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